The entrepreneur behind the transformation of Wolverhampton’s iconic Express & Star building has secured six-figure funding from four Midlands lenders to support the growth of his contracting business.

This includes an invoice finance facility from FlexABL, alongside debt funding from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II through fund managers Frontier Development Capital and BCRS Business Loans, together with a term loan from ART Business Loans.

Together, the lending facilities will provide Benedict Anslow, the managing director of BAX Construction, with the working capital to take on larger local authority and commercial construction projects across the West Midlands. The business has recently secured seven-figure contracts with Wolverhampton and Sandwell Councils to improve social housing. It now employs 20 staff and around 100 contractors. Over the past five years it has achieved an eight-fold increase in turnover to over £7.5m and aims to reach £10m in the year ahead.

Building on strong foundations

Founded in 2020, BAX Construction provides refurbishment, maintenance and construction services. The company specialises in local authority and social housing work, including kitchens, bathrooms and roofing, alongside commercial refurbishments and urban regeneration projects.

Alongside its contracting activity, the company is also leading the regeneration of the former Express & Star building on Castle Street. As part of this transformation, it has created Fused, a wellbeing centre that houses 14 independent businesses, including a hair salon, tattoo and podcast studios, as well as its own café.

Benedict self-funded the business from launch, growing the company without external lending before accessing finance to support its next stage of development.

Benedict Anslow said: “Our growth has been exponential and this funding gives us the backing to keep pushing that further. Cash flow is everything. You can be as profitable as you want as a company, but you need the capital to grow. I’ve got strong support from FlexABL and the other lenders now too. Looking ahead, we could be doing £10 million next year.”

A collaborative funding approach

FlexABL’s relationship with BAX began through an invoice discounting facility introduced by Select Business Finance. As the business has grown and its working capital requirements increased, FlexABL has agreed to implement a much improved invoice discounting facility up from £300,000 to £500,000, alongside term lending from ART Business Loans, BCRS Business Loans and Frontier Development Capital.

Chris Jones, owner of Select Business Finance, commented: “The business had grown massively over the previous couple of years, and it was clear that a loan of that size wasn’t going to come from one lender. This is a fantastic example of collaboration. We couldn’t have done it without everyone involved talking to each other and having a real desire to make it work. This is one of the deals I’m most proud of in the 18 years since I started Select, and it’s fantastic to see what we achieved together.”

The collaboration is part of Midlands SME Finance, a network of experienced, regionally focused lenders working together to help Midlands businesses access the right finance to grow, thrive and achieve their ambitions. Through collaboration, lenders can combine their specialist expertise to create flexible finance solutions for businesses with more complex or evolving needs.

The funding was delivered by an all-female team from FlexABL, ART Business Loans, BCRS Business Loans and Frontier Development Capital, bringing together expertise from across the Midlands SME finance community.

Kirsty Ibbotson, Director at FlexABL, explained: “We’re not just an invoice finance lender behind a computer, we’re human-led. It’s about understanding a client’s business well enough to know the right finance solution for their needs. This was a great example of collaboration across the Midlands SME Finance community, working alongside ART Business Loans, BCRS Business Loans and Frontier Development Capital to put the right finance structure in place for Benedict and the business to thrive.”

Abbie Talbot, Investment Manager (MEIF) at Frontier Development Capital, shared: “Benedict is one of a new generation of talented entrepreneurs we are seeing in the West Midlands. He is passionate about making a difference within the community and has the vision to identify opportunities. The launch of Fused is bringing new life to Wolverhampton town centre. This funding will support the growth of his construction business and its ongoing work to upgrade the region’s social housing stock.”

Roz Haque, Business Lending Manager at ART Business Loans, added: “No one lender could have done the whole thing alone, so it was about bringing us all together to find the right solution for the client. It was a lovely business to work with, with a young, dynamic director and a company delivering real social impact. The numbers are only half the story. The other half is getting to know the people behind the business and doing the right thing to help them grow.”

Lynn Wyke, Senior Business Development Manager at BCRS Business Loans, noted: “We put a plan in place to help Benedict Anslow in the long term, taking a 12-month view of his cash flow position rather than just focusing on the next two or three months. His passion is undoubted and the company’s clearly got a great future ahead. From our perspective, it was about making sure the funding structure works for the business as it continues to grow.”

Commenting on the funding, David Tindall, Senior Investment Manager at the British Business Bank, said: “We are pleased to have supported BAX Construction, providing the funding that will help the business respond to demand and play an important role in delivering improvements to housing and commercial projects across the region.

“BAX Construction is a great example of the type of ambitious, growing business that the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II is designed to support. Benedict and the team have built a strong reputation within the region, and this funding package will provide the working capital needed to help them secure and deliver contracts, create new opportunities and continue their growth journey.”

Putting the funding to work

Benedict Anslow concluded: “I can’t speak highly enough of FlexABL and the other lenders involved. They’re accommodating and down to earth. If you were dealing with a large bank, you wouldn’t necessarily have that same connection with your lender.

“It gives us the flexibility to keep growing, and I’ve already referred other people to FlexABL because of the way they work. If you’d have told me three years ago I’d be in the position I am today, I’d have probably laughed. I’ve got 20 staff in the office and another 100 subcontractors working for me daily. It’s about relationships and maintaining them, always being honest, humble and accountable. I wouldn’t have been where I am today without FlexABL.”

Media Contact:

Emilia Richards | Brand Development Manager, FlexABL
M: 07393 765 792
E: [email protected]

What the business does

Established in 2023, the company provides specialist outsourcing services to the utilities and water industry. Today, it supplies people, vehicles, equipment and tools as a complete package, delivering services that water companies would otherwise manage in-house. Services include emergency response, project staffing, meter replacements, leak detection, and bottled water deliveries during supply interruptions.

The cash flow challenge

The founder and CEO came from the construction industry, where stage payments and valuation disputes made invoice finance harder to access. The water industry offered more straightforward invoicing and creditworthy debtors, but as the company expanded rapidly, so did its invoice volume. Ensuring cash flow kept pace with growth was the key challenge.

Tapping into FlexABL

The founder wasn’t sure he’d find a lender willing to back the business. He said: “I found our situation frustrating at first. I had a clear plan, goals, and objectives, and I knew we could achieve them, but I didn’t think anyone would support what we were looking to achieve. Plus, I had never used invoice finance before and wasn’t familiar with what it involved. I had several calls with FlexABL and we talked openly. They listened to what I had to say about the challenges I’d experienced in the construction industry and said they would support us. Looking back, that was the key moment in our story that changed everything.”

FlexABL provided an initial facility of £100,000. The target for year one was £1m in turnover; by the end of this period, £2m of invoices had been funded.

Powering growth

In the summer of 2024, roughly a year into trading, demand surged significantly. The company scaled to around 100 staff across multiple contracts. Because the FlexABL facility was already in place, the business was able to take on every new opportunity without cash becoming a bottleneck.

The founder added: “We had the foresight to get a facility in place that would allow us to handle those months of intensive growth. There’s no way we’d have been in a position to do that without the help of FlexABL.”

“The problem with sudden surges in growth is that you end up with both eyes on cash and none on production and profit. It becomes very easy to lose sight of the commercial aspects of what you’re doing”, he continued. “With FlexABL, you’re clear on the parameters, so you can focus on the deal and the profit. And they take care of the cash.”

A responsive relationship

During a period of rapid growth, when a member of the finance team was off sick, FlexABL provided the understanding and support needed to keep things moving. The team also keeps a close eye on the account, checking in when appropriate.

The founder explained: “I’d get a call or a text saying, ‘You haven’t drawn down your facility recently – do you need anything this week?’ I’d describe FlexABL as interactive. They’re very flexible and proactive in supporting our ambitions.”

Thriving with FlexABL

The business is thriving with FlexABL’s funding in place. It’s reinvesting its profits, with 45 owned vehicles and a strengthening balance sheet, while building a pipeline of longer-visibility framework contracts. The facility has grown with the company’s sales, increasing from £100,000 to £300,000, and the business uses it not just to manage cash flow but to fund asset purchases, such as vehicles, tools and equipment, that add lasting value.

The founder concluded: “Quite simply, we wouldn’t be where we are today without FlexABL saying yes to financing us. That decision, two and a half years ago, has made all the difference to our business.”

What the businesses do

Neon is a performance and engagement agency, creating innovative programmes that motivate and reward employees and channel partners. Five years ago, Neon acquired FMI Agency from Appreciate Group. Founded in 2009, FMI is an award-winning brand engagement agency, delivering bespoke solutions for global organisations through brand, incentives and events.

Between them, the two agencies manage employee incentive schemes, sales performance rewards, large-scale rebrands and promotional campaigns for major manufacturers. They handle full event management, covering flights, accommodation and logistics, for both external brand promotions and internal staff incentive trips. In addition, they offer reward vouchers as part of their programmes.

Looking beyond the numbers

“Make your business and its people thrive!” states the headline on Neon’s website. FlexABL, which has funded Neon’s growth for over a decade, has the same philosophy. They consider both the business and its people before structuring the right funding solution.

Understanding the business behind the invoice

Carol Kier, Finance Director, has worked with Neon for almost three decades. Her relationship with FlexABL’s founders goes back even further, to a lender they ran before setting up FlexABL.

Much of the cost of an event, including hotels, tickets and logistics, has to be paid before a client is invoiced, and payment terms with large corporate clients can run to 60 days or more. FlexABL structured an invoice finance facility to bridge that substantial payment gap, enabling the business to win new contracts. An open approach and flexibility have proved critical.

Carol said, “As an events business, we don’t fall under the typical factorable deal types, but FlexABL took a much more open look at what our business is all about. I’m always upfront with them, and as long as they’ve got a copy of a PO from the client confirming the order’s valid, they’ll advance the agreed percentage against that invoice.”

Staying the course through COVID

Like all events-focused businesses, Neon was hit hard both during and after COVID. “Everything stopped and nobody was travelling. It was a tough time, and the team at FlexABL helped us through it all with the flexibility their name suggests.”

Keeping events moving at short notice

Fast turnarounds are typical in the events industry, where clients often confirm major projects just weeks before they need to happen. Carol explained, “We had a large automotive client contact us about three weeks before a major event. When we costed it out, it came to a significant sum, so I rang the team at FlexABL straight away to see if it was viable. I explained the details to them, and once they’d received more information from the client, they were able to provide the funding quickly.”

Always at the other end of the phone

For Carol, what hasn’t changed is the level of access she gets from FlexABL. “I know people who use factoring houses, and the experience they described couldn’t be more different to working with FlexABL,” she said. “With Flex, you get a personal, one-to-one approach, and they’re relationship-focused. Everything is founded on mutual trust and respect. They come to see us a couple of times a year, and we go over things together. They always say, ‘if you need anything, just call us.’ They’re always at the end of a phone, and always happy to help.”

Thriving with FlexABL

Neon is starting to see significantly more enquiries this year, as businesses look once again at how they engage staff and customers in a new and competitive environment. The funding provided by FlexABL allows the agencies to take on new client opportunities as they arise.

“I can’t speak highly enough of FlexABL,” Carol concluded. “They’ve been our rock from a finance point of view.”

What the business does

Wizard Staff Solutions is a trusted Early Years recruitment partner, supporting nurseries and childcare professionals across the UK through a dedicated and thoughtful approach to staffing. Founded to provide a more supportive recruitment experience, the company understands the challenges faced by nurseries and the importance of supporting professionals beyond simply filling shifts.

With experience supporting more than 1,000 nurseries and over 500 Early Years professionals, Wizard Staff Solutions connects the right people with the right opportunities. Through care, communication and consistency, the team provides dependable staffing solutions while helping professionals thrive and enabling nurseries to deliver exceptional quality childcare.

Managing growth at pace

As Wizard Staff Solutions continued to scale, the success of the business created a new challenge: managing significant weekly payroll commitments while waiting for client payments to come in. With clients operating on longer payment terms and temporary staff needing to be paid weekly, Hayley needed a funding solution that could support the company’s rapid expansion and growing working capital requirements.

Founder and CEO, Hayley Harnett, explained: “When we were doing £20,000 to £30,000 weeks, it was doable. When we started hitting those big, big weeks, it just wasn’t sustainable. We reached a point where we were paying out £60,000 to £70,000 per week in wages, while the majority of our clients were on 30 to 45-day payment terms. As the business grew, the gap between paying our staff and receiving payment from clients got much wider, and we needed a way to bridge it.”

For a high-growth business, maintaining sufficient working capital is critical. Hayley explained: “As a recruitment agency, you need to have a minimum of five weeks’ worth of payroll costs in your bank at all times, because you have to pay your temps weekly for at least five weeks before you get a penny in. But what growing business has got £400,000 or £500,000 just sitting in their account?”

Finding a funding solution for rapid growth

Wizard had previously used a high street bank factoring facility, but as the business scaled, Hayley found it increasingly limiting and no longer fit for the company’s growth plans. “The larger we got, the more restrictive the facility became. I understood the parameters and red tape that the bank had to work within, but as the business grew, they simply didn’t have the flexibility to move with us.”

Following an introduction through a mutual contact, Hayley connected with FlexABL and Wizard transitioned from factoring to invoice discounting. The new facility provided the flexibility and control the business needed to manage cash flow effectively while continuing to secure new opportunities.

Creating the capacity to thrive

With a flexible invoice discounting facility in place, Wizard has been able to unlock opportunities that previously would have been constrained by cash flow, including supporting nursery groups looking to expand into new geographies. Hayley explained: “We used to feel we couldn’t open up in new areas of the country because of cash constraints, thinking, ‘We can’t do that area because we physically couldn’t pay the temps up there.’”

The facility changed how Hayley viewed the company’s growing wage bill, transforming it from a cost pressure into a measure of progress. “I really didn’t used to want a high wage bill. I found myself having to shift my focus and think, ‘You actually need to increase it because that means your revenue is rising.’”

With FlexABL’s support, cash flow is no longer a concern. Hayley reflected on how much the business has changed: “I remember thinking at one point, we’ve got this VAT bill coming up or PAYE and wages – it was a constant stress. I don’t think we’ve discussed cash at board level for four years. It just ticks.”

With the right funding support in place, Wizard has been able to move beyond managing cash flow and focus on helping its business, professionals and nursery partners thrive.

A partnership beyond funding

For Hayley, the relationship with FlexABL extends beyond access to finance. “The team has been amazing at giving me the top-level overview. I’m very much about bigger-picture thinking in terms of growth and moving the business forward, and they give me that perspective.” She added, “They’re very approachable, always contactable. I can always get hold of someone, and they’ll come straight back to me and deal with it straight away.”

The technology has also made managing the facility simple and transparent. “The system is very easy to use. I can log on easily, see what I need to, and understand what’s happening without needing to ask questions.”

Backing ambition

Hayley’s advice to businesses weighing up invoice discounting against traditional lending is to consider whether their funding solution can support sustainable growth over the long term, rather than simply provide a short-term cash injection.

Hayley concluded: “If you’re looking to grow your business, not just sustain it, don’t be short-sighted. Banks have offered me thousands of pounds in loans. However, with a loan, once you’ve spent that money, it’s gone. And with recruitment, you have a constant need for cash. Challenge your sales team to get that revenue up, and invoice discounting will literally pay for itself within the first few months. We genuinely couldn’t have grown at the pace we have without FlexABL supporting us. It’s made a huge difference to the business – no doubt about it.”

What the business does

Established in 1934, R E Cooke Limited is a Midlands-based engineering company that has grown from its humble beginnings operating from the founder’s garden shed into a modern manufacturing facility in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Today, the company specialises in the design and manufacture of sheet-metal engineered products, serving customers across the military, automotive, rail, and industrial sectors. Now led by the third generation of the founding family, R E Cooke combines decades of engineering expertise with modern manufacturing capabilities.

Its comprehensive service offering includes design, laser cutting, press braking, MIG and TIG welding, machining, and a full range of finishing solutions. Having achieved the highly regarded rail industry certification BS EN 15085, the company has strengthened its position as a trusted supplier to the rail sector.

Finding FlexABL: A faster, friendlier funding partnership

With R E Cooke’s former bank no longer supporting invoice discounting facilities, the business needed to secure a new funding partner quickly to maintain cash flow support and ensure continuity.

For the company, finding the right provider was about more than simply securing funding; it was also about partnering with a team that offered a straightforward process and a supportive approach.

Rebecca Mallinson, Administration Director of R E Cooke, said: “When we had to find an alternative invoice discounting company, after the bank we were using ceased offering the facility, we were attracted to FlexABL by the friendly approach and the straightforward process. The ability to draw down funds rapidly, when required, was a positive.”

A relationship built on responsiveness

The ease of transition to a new funding partner was just as important to R E Cooke as securing the right funding solution. Rebecca added: “The changeover was quick and easy and friendly people always at the end of the phone or email.”

R E Cooke regularly works with large organisations that operate extended payment terms, making invoice discounting a flexible solution to support the company’s working capital requirements. “In challenging situations, it allows you to access the required funds without waiting for payment. We often deal with large companies who require long credit terms (90-days) but payments need to be made faster.”

Reflecting on the ongoing relationship with FlexABL, Rebecca highlighted the value of having a responsive and approachable funding partner. “I have a positive working relationship with the staff. I know that a phone call or email will get a quick response, especially when I have been remiss in requesting funds by the cut-off.”

Supporting the next stage of growth

After more than 90 years of family ownership, R E Cooke is now planning for the next chapter of the business. With a focus on growth, increasing sales, and strengthening its market position, the company is working with specialist advisers to maximise its future value ahead of a potential sale.

“We are speaking with a marketing company that specialises in getting companies ready for sale. This involves increasing sales and promoting the business. Unfortunately, since my brother and I are both around retirement age and none of our offspring are interested in following in our footsteps, sale is the only viable option.”

With ambitious plans for the future, R E Cooke is focused on achieving projected growth, with FlexABL continuing to provide flexible funding solutions designed to help the business thrive.